The Labor enquirer., 1887-05-28
LESS WORK.
The Modern Division OF
Labor" Idea Grit
icised.
". II. Riley Of Massachusetts, Has
Wise Word to Say to the
Workers
For the Enquirer.


cases division of labor can be and some
times is wisely practiced. But there arr
many divisions that are not only not wise
but are absolutely idiotic.
Each country should grow its own food
and manufacture its own goods. It may
please orthodox political economists to
have one nation employed in pin-making
and another In raising food for pin
makers, but such an arrangement is dis
astrous to the workers.
The practice Of agriculture is essential
10 the life Of nation. No amount of
cheap swapping will compensate for loss
Of energy, health, self-reliance, independ-
ence and manliness.
Every person SHOULD for his health's
sake employ part of his time in agricul-
ture or gardening.
In England, Queen Elizabeth had a
statute enacted prohibiting the building
Of any cottage withless than four acres of
land for Its tenants to use. Multitudes Of
workers are now crowded into cities where
the only substitute for gardening they can
practiceis digging the soil in flower
pot with table-fork.
Any form Of division Of labor that re-
suits injuriously to the mental, moral or
physical health Of the workers will in the
long run prove disastrously uneconomical
Labor is nowadays so artistically di-
vided that we have men who make trade
Of singing and praying. Time was when
each person was singer and prayer.
(Thea, all persons earned their living by
manual labor.) But we have now not only
professional singing men and praying
mep, but professional fighting men, swim
ming running-men, betting men,
baseball men, poetry-men, dancing men,
and mourning-men. All such professions,
as modes ofearning a liuing, are preposter-
Gus and injurious. Some of the pro-
tessed accomplishments are very useful
and agreeable, at times, but they are
pleasures that should be practiced by all
persons, and never should be used as a
means of getting money. 1t would be no
less ridiculous to have men get their living
as professors Of eating, or Of loving, than
TO get it as professors of singing, poetry,
or religion.
Could the modern system of dividing
labor be introduced at the dinner table
Would IL save time to have one man eat
all the meat and another all the potatoes. +.
Such an arrangement would be unpleasant
and unwhoesome, but not more so-nor
more foolish-than the arrangement by
which one man is compelled to do none
but indoor, and another none but outdoor
work.
II is unnatural and degrading for man
TO work eight, ten or twelve hours every
day of his life Except Sundays and Other
holidaysl weaving, button.making, paper
making, shoe-making or any other un
varied indoor occupation. No person
should work over three or four hours O
day at such employments.
(Just here wish to say, in parenthesis
that LEoSI LEVI, u statistician employed
by the British government, has stated
that il all able-bodied persons in England
earned their own living, each person
would need to work only one hour and a
half day, ON condition that all extrava.
gance was discontinued. Considering the
vast amount of labor saving machinery in
existence, other statisticians have declared
that the time he named might safely be
reduced more than one-half)
Riding on the front platform of horse.
car one day asked the driver il he liked
his work. do like HELLs" he replied
did you erer like its" l inquire. "Yes-
~ uItt, Nv Htiu' Uut III uO nOS, anu
! soon got my belly full Of it, working
fourteen hours day" He would have
enjoyed four hours driving each day, but
fourteen hours of it would become torture
10 any one but an idiot.
Men may be actively and healthily en-
ployed ten or twelve hours each day, pro-
vided that their work is wisely varied. In
the Good Time that is Coming, they will
work three or four hours at their profes-
sional occupations and may spend from
three TO nine hours in gardening, fruit
culture, wood-carving, drawing, painting,
sculpture, chemical experiments, invent
ing and matchmaking, ornamental build
ing, geologizing, and in other wholesome,
useful and pleasant recreative rk,-each
person choosing the kind of employment,
he likes best, and such as affords the bes,
change from the work by which he will
earn his living.
Every able-bodied person should carr
his living by work that is pleasant to him
self and profitable to the community al